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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Milkweed, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Relationships
War, Dehumanization, and Innocence
Ingenuity, Resilience, and Survival
Family
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Stopthief and Uri go outside, where they see soldiers tossing bread from the back of a truck while people scramble to catch loaves for themselves. Stopthief never knew that bread could just be given away. Though Uri tries to stop him, Stopthief also approaches a crowd that’s gathered around an old man whom soldiers are forcing to scrub the sidewalk using his long gray beard. Stopthief doesn’t understand why. They see another group of soldiers cutting off another man’s hair and beard. Stopthief tells the soldiers to bring the man to their barbershop, and Uri pulls Stopthief away as the soldiers laugh.
Stealing has been so central to Stopthief’s identity and his experience of daily survival that he’s surprised by the idea that bread could be available for the taking. More shocking, though, is Stopthief’s first exposure to overt Nazi cruelty: the soldiers are targeting observant Jewish men by denigrating their hairstyles. But Stopthief doesn’t yet understand what’s happening—innocent of the soldiers’ intent, he tries to be helpful.
Themes
Back at home, Uri warns Stopthief to stay away from Jackboots. Stopthief thinks that the Jackboots like him; he tells Uri that he wants to be a Jackboot himself someday. Uri smacks him for saying this.
The older Uri knows much better than Stopthief does what the Nazis’ presence means—in Stopthief’s eyes, the Jackboots are just impressive figures whom he hopes to emulate someday. He’s innocent of any hostile intentions on their part, which Uri knows could leave Stopthief vulnerable.
Themes
That night, Uri wants to think up a real name for Stopthief. When he asks Stopthief about his family, Stopthief can’t remember his parents. Uri once had a little brother, but he’s probably dead. As Stopthief thinks back over what he’s seen today—the man scrubbing the sidewalk, the soldiers cutting hair—he suddenly realizes that all the soldiers’ victims were Jewish. Uri mocks him for being so slow to figure this out.
Uri, like Stopthief, comes from a background of loss. The likely death of a little brother is the only hint that’s ever given about Uri’s background, but it explains a lot about Uri’s affection for and fierce protectiveness of Stopthief. Stopthief finally puts together what he’s heard about Jews with what he’s witnessed over the past few days, creating a small crack in his innocence.
Themes
